Tintern Abbey - William Wordsworth

written in…

1798

where is the abbey?

Banks of the Wye in Wales

saw nature as a…

powerful force that can heal human hardships

what type of verse is it written in?

blank verse, lines are unrhymes yet there is a metrical rhythm to it

lines 1-22 what’s happeing?

he returns to Tintern Abbey after five years, he hears the sounds of the river and see the scenery under s sycamore tree, he sees the fruit above him is unripe

what highlights that this is a return?

repetition of ‘five’ in the opening lines

looking at the natural scene before him makes him think about….

a deep connection between nature and man, he has “thoughts of a more deep seclusion”

“unripe fruits”

suggests the younger version of his was unripe, hadn’t come to fully appreciate nature solely looked at it rather than really felt it

towards the end of the first section the speaker describes “wreaths of smoke” created by….

• a “Hermit”

• it is capitalised to draw attention to it and repeated in a broken line at the end of the section

• suggests Wordsworth may himself be envious of his separation of society

in lines 23-50 describes what was once…

invisible to him in nature, he has had a mental improvement

• begins to drift into religion and pantheism

“eye made quiet by the power of harmony”

imagery surrounding sight and sense

contrast between power and beauty of nature and the loneliness and noise of the city

the ‘beauteous forms’ of the landscape is…

the most basic form of contemplating nature

what are the speaker’s three benefits of nature?

1. physical restoration (“with tranquil restoration” / “felt in the blood, and felt along the heart”)

2. mental (“passing even into my purer mind”)

3. moral teaching (“little, nameless, unremembered, acts Of kindness and of love”)

in lines 51-59 the speaker restates his….

belief in the power of nature

the speaker describes the city in terms of…

‘darkness’ ‘joyless daylight’ and ‘unprofitable’

in lines 60-113